Looking for some Christmas gifts for the teen in your life? Here are some we recommend. All are new and in stock on our website, and we've got some special deals for the weekend after Thanksgiving: get 10% off everything on Friday when you use Plaid Friday at checkout, and 20% off on Saturday when you use promo code Small Saturday at checkout. We're also offering free delivery if you live in Baltimore in addition to the promo codes. Links to buy are highlighted and bold.
1. No More Goddesses by Kim Baccellia
Jordan Lake discovers an ancient bracelet in her grandmother's house and uncovers a family mystery that links her favorite actress, Audrey Hepburn, a romantic movie, and an aunt she never knew. Jordan hopes the bracelet will bring her love. Instead, it brings one nightmare after another, unleashing Hathor, the Egyptian love goddess, who decides it's fun to mess with the McKnight High School social scene. Jordan holds the key to vanquish Hathor, but will she figure out what it is in time to save her school, one of her best friends, and get a date to the Valentine's Day dance? $14. Buy it here.
2. Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan
Raisa was only a child when she was kidnapped and enslaved in Qilara. Forced to serve in the palace of the King, she’s endured hunger, abuse, and the harrowing fear of discovery. Everyone knows that Raisa is Arnath, but not that she is a Learned One, a part of an Arnath group educated in higher order symbols. In Qilara, this language is so fiercely protected that only the King, the Prince, and Tutors are allowed to know it. So when the current Tutor-in-training is executed for sharing the guarded language with slaves and Raisa is chosen to replace her, Raisa knows that, although she may have a privileged position among slaves, any slipup could mean death.
That would be challenging enough, but training alongside Prince Mati could be her real undoing. And when a romance blossoms between them, she’s suddenly filled with a dangerous hope for something she never before thought possible: more. Then she’s approached by the Resistance—an underground army of slaves—to help liberate the Arnath people. Joining the Resistance could mean freeing her people…but she’d also be aiding in the war against her beloved, an honorable man she knows wants to help the slaves.
Working against the one she loves—and a palace full of deadly political renegades—has some heady consequences. As Raisa struggles with what’s right, she unwittingly uncovers a secret that the Qilarites have long since buried…one that, unlocked, could bring the current world order to its knees.
And Raisa is the one holding the key. $17.99. Buy it here.
3. The Hollow Sun, by DL Wainwright
Lucy Kincade's biggest concerns in life are her widowed mother, her college apps, and her grades...until she stumbles upon an insidious secret not meant for mortal eyes. When nightmares stalk the waking world and a cannibalistic serial killer is carving a path across America, Lucy and her friends decide to stand against the darkness. But with all the secrets, it's not easy to know whom to trust. $14.99. Buy it here.
4. Girls Like Me, by Nina Packebush
Sixteen-year-old queer-identified Banjo Logan wakes up groggy in a juvenile mental ward. She realizes that the clueless therapist and shiny psychiatrist can’t help her come to terms with her genderqueer boy/girlfriend’s suicide, much less help her decide what to do with the fetus that’s growing inside her or answers the question of why she cuts. She’s befriended by two fellow patients—a strange and slightly manic queer girl and a shy, gay boy disowned by his born-again Christian parents. Girls Like Me is the a powerful coming of age story of a pregnant gay teenager who realizes that friends may make the best medicine. $14.95. Buy it here.